If you leave the scheme with three months' membership or more, and before you’re entitled to actually get your pension, the pension benefits you’ve built up will become deferred benefits. These benefits will then be increased each year in line with the cost of living.
You can claim them as a pension when you're old enough or transfer them to another arrangement before that.
Deferred pensions up by 6.7% in 2024
The 6.7% increase on deferred benefits was applied from 8 April 2024. This increase is based on the value of the Consumer Prices Index on 30 September in the previous year.
If you left your role part way through the year you won’t get the full increase straightaway. Increases on your deferred benefits usually start building up from the day after the date you left the pension scheme. You’ll start to get the full increase from next year.
It's important you keep an eye on how much your benefits are worth. Make sure you look at your deferred benefit statement online each year as this shows you how much is it currently worth.
You should have now received your 2024 statement if you are out of scope for Remedy. Log on to My Pension to download a copy.
If it's not been possible to produce your statement don't worry. We’ll continue producing 2024 statements up to March 2025 when we close production ready for 2025's statement.
If you've opted out of electronic communications we post it to you when it's been produced.
Contact us for a quote when you decide to claim your benefits. We will send you some forms to fill in along with pension figures.
We will supply you with an estimate for each pension/deferred pension record you have with us, free of charge within a 12 month period.
The age you can claim your deferred benefit from depends on the Firefighter scheme you were in.
Ages you can claim your benefits from
The age you can claim your deferred benefit from is determined by the scheme in which you built up benefits.
FPS 1992
A deferred pension is put into payment at age 60.
FPS 2006
It would normally be put into payment at age 65. You could, however, request earlier payment from age 55 but your benefits will be reduced.
FPS 2015
You become eligible to draw it on age grounds at deferred pension age, which is the same as your State Pension Age, or age 65 if that is later. You can also claim your deferred benefit early from age 55, but your benefits will be reduced.
What happens if I become ill before I start getting my pension?
If you become permanently too ill to work at any age we may be able to pay your benefits on health grounds.
You claim an ill health pension you need to apply in writing to your former FRA who will undertake a health assessment.
What happens to my deferred benefit if I die?
If you die while your pension benefits are still deferred there will likely be benefits payable to your nominated beneficiaries (or estate) and possibly a survivor pension(s).
There's strict rules and time limits in the FPS that restrict when and to where where you can transfer out. Read about your options here.
Linking to other FPS membership
Your deferred benefit can be linked to newer FPS records either in the same authority or in another different authority. Depending on the gap between each role this may be done automatically.
If it is with a fire authority administered by WYPF you can read about linking and transferring benefits in the FPS knowledge hub here.
If your new role is with an FRA not administered by us you should contact your new administrator.
Your deferred benefits are valuable retirement savings that keep pace with the cost of living both before and after you start drawing them.
You should consider carefully the benefits and risks of transfers and be aware of pension scams at all times.
In this section
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